Three months into my first PM role and already feeling burned out. I keep reading about ‘time blocking’ and ‘deep work,’ but my days get shredded by random syncs and ‘quick questions.’ What nobody warns you about: those 5-minute interruptions that derail your flow for hours. The ‘Day-in-the-Life’ threads mention calendar hacks – would love specific tactics from PMs who’ve reclaimed their schedules. How do you protect focus time when everyone assumes you’re always available?
‘quick question’ is corporate for ‘i cant be bothered to write specs.’ pro tip: schedule ‘customer calls’ on your calendar during prime interruption hours. nobody questions those. actual customer calls? do those whenever.
tried blocking focus time but my lead keeps booking over it. shud i just work late instead? need advice pls
Had the same issue until I started using a ‘communication menu’ in my Slack status - options like ‘In Deep Work (DM for urgent)’, ‘Available for Quick Sync’, etc. Surprisingly, engineers started respecting it more than my manager did. Saved me 10hrs/week in Q1.
A study of 500 tech PMs shows context switching consumes 2.1hrs/day average. Recommendation: Batch communications into three 30-minute slots. Tools like Scheduled Send ensure responses go out during expected windows without real-time availability. 73% adoption rate reduces async response expectations over 6 weeks.